Under a DACA amnesty, American taxpayers would be left with a $26 billion bill. About one in five DACA illegal aliens, after an amnesty, would end up on food stamps, while at least one in seven would go on Medicaid. Since DACA’s inception under Obama, more than 2,100 illegal aliens have been kicked off the program after it was revealed that they were either criminals or gang members. JOHN BINDER

During the campaign, Trump (correctly) lambasted Obama's unilateral amnesty program as illegal and pledged to stop it on day one. But not only did he not stop it, DHS has continued to process renewals and even new applications, for illegal aliens who did not already have this two-year renewable work permit.

Try as I might, I couldn’t get anyone at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to tell me how many illegal aliens Donald Trump has amnestied since taking office. You won’t be surprised to learn that they picked Comey-Palooza Day to release the data on the second quarter of FY 2017, meaning January through March.

It shows that during the first three months of this year, USCIS has approved 107,524 DACA renewals and 17,275 new applications. Of the 90 days in the January to March period, 70 of them have been on Trump's watch, or about 78 percent. Assuming a constant rate of processing, that would mean Donald Trump has given access to work permits, Social Security numbers, driver's licenses, EITC, and more to 13,436 illegal aliens who had not already been amnestied by Obama. That's an average of 192 new illegals a day granted amnesty by Donald Trump.

It would also mean that Trump has renewed Obama's lawless grant of amnesty for 83,630 illegals. But renewals, at least for a time, I can understand – the orgy of sob stories that would result from ending the work permits of some three-quarters of a million people would be a wonder to behold. Though I was initially skeptical, it might even make sense to try to trade a real, lawful amnesty for the DACAs in exchange for important immigration changes only Congress can pass – specifically, universal E-Verify and cuts in legal immigration. In that case, announcing that renewals would continue until, say, the end of the year could be a powerful motivator for congressional Democrats.

But issuing new work permits to illegals who don't have them already makes no sense at all, either from a P.R. perspective or politically. My speculation is that the White House has no idea what to do about DACA and so is just letting it continue on autopilot – amnestying 192 new illegals a day.

- Mark Krikorian, Executive Director, Center for Immigration Studies

"Almost 5,000 veterans sleep on the streets of Los Angeles every night.".... IN A CITY THAT HAS 5,000,000 ILLEGALS SUCKING IN MORE THAN A BILLION DOLLARS IN WELFARE FROM LOS ANGELES COUNTY!

WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF OPEN BORDERS ON POVERTY, CRIME, JOBLESSNESS AND HEROIN ADDICTION?

END THE MEXICAN INVASION AND OCCUPATION AND WE END THE HOUSING CRISIS!

"The continued growth of homelessness in Los Angeles, one of the main urban centers in the most advanced capitalist country on the planet, underscores the brutality of the existing social order, and its incapacity to meet the most basic needs of the population."

Homelessness sharply increases in Los Angeles County

By Thomas Gaist and Marc Wells9 June 2017

The number of homeless living in Los Angeles County grew by 23 percent over the last year, rising to 58,000. The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) registered double-digit increases in the number of Angelenos living on the street in Antelope Valley, San Gabriel Valley, Metro LA, West LA, South LA, and East LA County. Since 2015, Los Angeles city and county administrations have maintained a state of emergency in response to the sustained rise in homelessness.

During the past year, Los Angeles’ youth homeless population between 18 and 24 surged to nearly 6,000, an increase of 64 percent over 2016. An uptick of 41 percent was also registered for youth under 18.

Almost 5,000 veterans sleep on the streets of Los Angeles every night.Nearly one-third of Los Angeles’ homeless are battling some form of mental illness. Such cases have increased 13 percent in the last year, while the number of homeless with HIV/AIDS has increased a whopping 67 percent.

According to the Continuum of Care, part of the Homeless Services Authority, the numbers are even worse: more than 55,000 people experience homelessness on any given night in Los Angeles alone. This represents a 26 percent increase from last year and it does not include the neighboring cities of Glendale, Pasadena and Long Beach.

The number of homeless in Los Angeles suburbs and outlying areas grew significantly as well in the opening months of 2017. The homeless population in Antelope Valley and East Los Angeles County jumped by 50 percent to 4,600 and 5,200 respectively, the highest increases. The figure for the San Gabriel valley grew by 1,000 to nearly 4,200.

An alarming figure is the rise in chronic homelessness in the county: in one year an increase of 20 percent has been registered, bringing the total to 17,531. Another significant figure is the number of sheltered homeless people: a mere 15,000, only one out of four.

These figures are doubtlessly an undercount. However improved, the methods of measurement utilized ignore a substantial mass of homeless people who find shelter with friends or relatives. Moreover, the report reveals an increasingly polarized society, where vast masses are approaching unprecedented poverty levels, if not being thrown into homelessness itself.

Los Angeles housing is the least affordable of any city in the United States when rent is compared to income. More than 2 million households in the counties of Los Angeles and Orange are faced with a housing bill higher than 30 percent of their income.

BLOG: THE STATE of CALIFORNIA HANDS ILLEGALS $30 BILLION IN SOCIAL SERVICES. NOT ONE LEGAL VOTED TO BE MEXICO'S WELFARE OFFICE.

Since 2008, the situation facing Los Angeles renters has worsened drastically as a result of the slashing of at least $500 million in federal and state housing aid to the city. The state housing redevelopment budget, valued at $275 in 2008, was completely defunded after 2015.

Rents have soared by over 30 percent during the past two decades, while the average income of renters has fallen. The median income of Los Angeles renters has fallen by $1,500 since 2000, while the median price of housing increased nearly $3,800.

As of January 1, 2017, the median asking price for housing in Los Angeles was $2,500, a price that requires an hourly wage of $48, according to the University of California Urban Analytics Lab.

Homelessness would increase even further with the implementation of President Donald Trump’s proposed budget, which proposes to cut an estimated total of $3.7 trillion in social programs for the next 10 years, from Medicaid, the federal health insurance program for the poor and disabled, to food stamps and welfare benefits.

An example of the impact of social programs, albeit utterly inadequate, on homelessness is shown by the 21 percent decline in unsheltered people in families. This change was mostly due to the effects of an increase in families receiving CalWorks Temporary Homeless Assistance. In the 2017-18 budget proposal by Democratic California Governor Jerry Brown, CalWorks suffers a 2 percent cut justified by a projected decline in caseloads, the opposite of what the homelessness report evinces.

The continued growth of homelessness in Los Angeles, one of the main urban centers in the most advanced capitalist country on the planet, underscores the brutality of the existing social order, and its incapacity to meet the most basic needs of the population.

Within the framework of the capitalist organization of economy, the extraction of profits from production requires that the living standard of the working class be held down as close to bare subsistence as possible, with large sections permanently excluded from the labor process altogether.

Although often cynically presented by the political and media establishment as a matter of the “laziness” and “lack of personal responsibility” of individual homeless persons, the epidemic of homelessness arises from these economic, social and political processes.

The rise in homelessness is in fact a direct consequence of decades of policies—pursued at federal, state and municipal levels by both Democrats and Republicans—which redistributed wealth from the bottom to the top.

Especially in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, the ruling class has responded to the qualitative deepening of the capitalist crisis by escalating its assault on the wages and living standards of the vast majority of society. Workers now face vicious attacks not only on their housing, but on all basic amenities of modern life, including nutrition, health care, employment and culture.

The LAHSA report also shows that more than 550,000 low-income households are severely burdened by housing costs in Los Angeles County. It therefore suggests 552,000 more affordable rental homes for very and extremely low income households. This contrasts with what is being planned by the political elite.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, a Democrat, noted that homelessness has persisted “through administrations, through recessions... Our city is in the midst of an extraordinary homelessness crisis that needs an extraordinary response. These men, these women, these children are our neighbors.”

What is this “extraordinary response” he is preparing? By force of two measures (H and HHH) the local government is planning to create or subsidize a paltry 15,000 housing units and pay for services to support those living in them. In other words, the political establishment is determined to make homelessness a permanent feature of modern society.

The ruling class views the provision of affordable housing and other social goods as an unacceptable drain on profits. From their standpoint, there is nothing to be lost, and much to be gained, from the expulsion of large sections of the population from the housing system altogether.

By Marc Wells9 June 2017

A 23 percent increase of homelessness in Los Angeles County over the last year reveals on one side the advanced stage of the crisis of capitalist society; on the other, the results of policies and measures aimed at cutting budget funds previously allocated to subsidize the most vulnerable layers of society.

Despite the hard work of thousands of individuals working in shelters and other similar organizations, whose intent is to help those in need, the problem of homelessness is spreading across different sections of the population, affecting layers of the working class that have suffered greatly, especially since the 2008 housing and financial crisis.

TheWorldSocialistWebSite recently spoke to Nathan Sheets, director of operations and programs for the Center at Blessed Sacrament in Hollywood, California, an organization that provides support for the homeless.

“The figures from last week’s report already look bad, but I do believe it’s worse than those numbers say,” commented Sheets. “An increasingly desperate rental market is the main cause. We’re running out of ‘affordable’ units. Our center is in the heart of Hollywood, a few blocks from where the Oscars happen. We get people across a broad spectrum. Some of them have to take three or four buses to get to us.”

Sheets reported that affordable housing in the city is utterly inadequate: “When we spot an open housing unit, there are 50 applications. Some of them are people like me, working individuals without a Section 8 voucher but still desperate, with their entire families. Anybody who’s not super-wealthy is getting pushed out.

“We’ve definitely seen an increase in visible homelessness. It’s not just tents, it’s people on the street who have jobs, have families or are going to school.” Sheets recalled, “Last year I noticed a high percentage of community college individuals who were homeless. I could not imagine, if I think of the time I went to college.”

Chronic homelessness has registered an uptick. Sheets’ organization focuses on that layer of the population. “Chronically homeless individuals went up,” Sheets remarked. “When comparing ‘falling out’ of an apartment 10 years ago with a year ago, the price of housing has increased and the people’s ability to find an affordable place has significantly decreased.”

The gravity of the situation, Sheets observed, is highlighted by the many who are left out: “We have to prioritize people on the basis of need, but it still leaves thousands of other people out. It’s the hardest thing in the world to tell someone ‘You haven’t been homeless long enough to qualify for anything!’”

Highlighting changes that occurred after years of budget cuts targeting the most vulnerable layers of society, Nathan commented, “Policy that doesn’t find a way to efficiently provide more affordable housing is a problem, while wages have remained stagnant for the most part and housing prices have skyrocketed. That is a policy problem.

“In the old days if you were homeless you could get assistance, get on your feet, get into a shelter relatively quickly,” Sheets recalled. “Now, even without shelter beds we literally have nowhere to tell someone to go. Sometimes whatever shelter available is arguably worse than sleeping on the sidewalk.”

Asked about the relationship between mental illness and being homeless, Sheets responded: “A good amount of people who come into the Center have a degree of mental illness that ultimately stems from trauma. I don’t think there’s a single individual who walks into the Center who hasn’t incurred some degree of trauma. Being on the street for a while and having traumatic experiences that affect your mental sanity goes hand in glove.”

Sheets drew conclusions on the interrelation between homelessness and mental illness as the consequence of traumatic experience: “The longer someone lives on the street, the more they are susceptible to trauma and having to battle various degrees of mental illness. People aren’t meant to sleep on sidewalks.”

“It’s easy for some who fall off of prescription medications to supplement with street drugs to fill that void,” said Sheets. “That’s a systemic problem. On the flip side, when we succeed in getting someone into housing, it’s almost like their age decreases; they get their energy back, just because they have a roof, a bathroom. It’s amazing to see how a person transforms.”

Sheets concluded by reflecting on the reasons why the richest state in the richest country on earth cannot offer affordable housing: “It’s a very present question for everyone at the Center, all the good people who work in the field. I don’t even know what the word is for that we don’t take care of our poor in this country and it takes very low-funded organizations and individuals who maybe otherwise could or would be doing other things. Instead they decide to sacrifice for the good of the community. Unfortunately, our system is not built for that. What's a word that’s more intense than insane, as we don’t have housing for the people who are the most ill in our community? It’s unacceptable.”

MILLIONS of JOBS and BILLIONS in WELFARE and they commit most of the MURDERS

SANCTUARY CITIES AND STATES: AMERICA FALLS TO LA RAZA SUPREMACY!

“What we're seeing is our Congress and national leadership dismantling our laws by not enforcing them. Lawlessness becomes the norm, just like Third World corruption. Illegal aliens now have more rights and privileges than Americans. If you are an illegal alien, you can drive a car without a driver's license or insurance. You may obtain medical care without paying. You may work without paying taxes. Your children enjoy free education at the expense of taxpaying Americans.”

It is obvious that this scheme will mean a drastic decline in health care for the elderly and disabled and result in increased poverty and disease and premature death for millions of people. This is precisely what corporate America, which considers health care for the elderly and poor an intolerable drain on its profits, intends.

ILLEGALS & WELFARE

70% OF ILLEGALS GET WELFARE!

“According to the Centers for Immigration Studies, April '11, at least 70% of Mexican illegal alien families receive some type of welfare in the US!!! cis.org”

So when cities across the country declare that they will NOT be sanctuary, guess where ALL the illegals, criminals, gang members fleeing ICE will go???? straight to your welcoming city. So ironically the people fighting for sanctuary city status, may have an unprecedented crime wave to deal with along with the additional expense.

$17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies.

$12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary schooleducation for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word ofEnglish.

$22 billion is spent on (AFDC) welfare to illegal aliens each year.

$2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as(SNAP) food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens.

$3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens.

30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens.Does not include local jails and State Prisons.

2012 illegal aliens sent home $62 BILLION in remittances back to theircountries of origin. This is why Mexico is getting involved in ourpolitics.

$200 Billion Dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal aliens.

Nearly One Million Sex Crimes Committed by Illegal Immigrants In The United States.

“Part of the problem, Santorum said, has been the arrival of millions of unskilled immigrants — legal and illegal — in the United States. "American workers deserve a shot at [good] jobs," Santorum said. "Over the last 20 years, we have brought into this country, legally and illegally, 35 MILLION mostly unskilled workers. And the result, over that same period of time, workers' wages and family incomes have flatlined." SEN. RICK SANTORUM

“The percentage of foreign-born workers in the U.S. labor force has more than tripled over the last four decades and while the U.S. represents just 5 percent of the world’s population it attracts 20 percent of the world’s immigrants,

California: The sick man of the United States…. A STATE UNDER MEX OCCUPATION!

“As one attorney general, Kamala Harris, steps down to replace Barbara Boxer, another attorney general is secreted out of the glands of selfsame power in the form of pus-spewing Xavier Becerra.”

It didn’t stop Becerra, a prominent Latino rights advocate who has served in Congress since 1993, from pushing for the dealer’s release at the request of his father, Horacio. The elder Vignali, a rich Los Angeles businessman, contributed thousands of dollars to Becerra’s various campaigns and a favor was in order.

“The lifetime costs of Social Security and Medicare benefits of illegal immigrant beneficiaries of President Obama’s executive amnesty would be well over a trillion dollars, according to Heritage Foundation expert Robert Rector’s prepared testimony for a House panel obtained in advance by Breitbart News.”

THE STAGGERING COST OF AMNESTY: non-enforcement is another form of AMNESTY!

MEXICAN HEROIN POURS OVER THE NARCOMEX-U.S. BORDER

Americans die young, poor and addicted while politicians angle for more amnesty and wider open borders with the LA RAZA cartels.

L.A. City Council backs plan to borrow $60 million to pay off legal settlements

City Controller Ron Galperin, seen at microphone with other city leaders in 2015, opposes a plan to borrow $60 million to cover the cost of legal settlements and court judgments. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

The Los Angeles City Council took a step Tuesday toward borrowing up to $60 million to pay for legal payouts and court judgments despite a warning by City Controller Ron Galperin that the borrowing proposal is costly and unnecessary.

The council voted 13 to 1 to proceed with the borrowing plan. A separate vote on the bond contract is expected later this year.

The city normally budgets about $60 million annually for its legal liability fund. But budget officials say they’ve already spent $135 million on legal settlements and court judgments this fiscal year, forcing the city to dip into its reserve fund, which pays for emergencies.

Borrowing the $60 million will cost the city $20 million in interest, budget officials said.

Councilman Mitch Englander, a persistent critic of the borrowing plan, voted against it Tuesday.

Councilman Paul Krekorian also voiced opposition, but said he supports the plan as an option to ensure the city doesn’t have to dip further into its reserve fund.

The last time L.A. issued such a bond was 2010 after the city was forced to pay millions of dollars to settle lawsuits over excessive force by police at a May Day demonstration at MacArthur Park in 2007.

That 2010 bond also helped pay for other court cases.

Galperin warned city leaders against proceeding with the bond in a letter this month. His office maintains the city’s finances will improve by the end of the fiscal year, when $38 million in unspent city money will be returned by departments.

“I continue to believe that it is unwise for a city to use bonds as a way to bridge a budget gap,” Galperin said in a statement after the vote.

With a final vote still pending on the bond contract, the City Council could still back out of the plan.

US Supreme Court sides with police who broke into home and shot sleeping couple

By Shelley Connor2 June 2017

The Supreme Court of the United States ruled unanimously on Tuesday in favor of the police in a case involving Constitutional issues relating to an illegal search and entry in violation of the Fourth Amendment which resulted in a man and his pregnant wife being shot 15 times.

The 8-0 decision in County of Los Angeles vs. Mendez overturns a Ninth Circuit Court decision that found in favor of Angel Mendez and vacated an award of $4 million granted by the Ninth Circuit.

Notably, the court reached its unanimous decision without the input of the conservative Trump appointee Neil Gorsuch, who did not vote since arguments in the case were heard before he was sworn in earlier this year.

On October 1, 2010, 12 Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputies, acting upon the word of an informant, made plans to sweep the home of Paula Hughes in the town of Lancaster in search of an at-large parolee. Deputies were told that a man and a “pregnant lady” were living in a plywood structure in Hughes’ backyard. The deputies did not notify Hughes of the sweep; they had not obtained a search warrant, nor had Hughes given them permission to search her property.

Conley and Jennifer Pederson, were assigned to clear the back of the property. Conley and Pederson made note of the plywood shack. A power cord ran from Hughes’ house to the 343 square foot structure. Clothes hung outside and the shack was equipped with an air conditioning unit—all things that signaled that the shed-like structure was inhabited.

Neither Pederson nor Conley knocked on the door of the shack, nor announced their presence. Conley opened the door and pulled aside a blanket which had been hung over the door for insulation.

Angel Mendez and his wife, Jennifer, who was seven months pregnant, lay asleep in the shack. Hughes had allowed them to live in the shed until they could recover from financial hardship. As deputies entered the structure, Angel woke and made to stand up, attempting to put down the BB gun he kept close to shoot at rats.

“Gun!” Conley shouted; he and Pederson then

shot Mendez and his slumbering wife 15 times.

Angel Mendez was severely wounded and ended

up losing most of his right leg. Jennifer Mendez

was shot in the back and sustained a shattered

collarbone.

The Mendezes sued Los Angeles County in federal court on the grounds that the deputies had violated their Fourth Amendment rights against illegal search and seizure and excessive force. The court ruled in their behalf, noting that the deputies were well aware that the shack was inhabited, having been informed of the fact in briefings and having seen evidence of habitation around the outside of the shed. Moreover, the deputies’ search did not merit any exception for a warrantless search, and they had further violated the Fourth Amendment by failing to alert the couple of their presence.

The court awarded the Mendezes $4 million in damages for the shooting, as well as attorneys’ fees and two penalties for unreasonable search and seizure. On appeal, the Ninth Circuit Court concurred with the lower court with the exception of the so-called “knock and announce” Fourth Amendment penalty.

Invoking the so-called “provocation doctrine,” the Ninth Circuit ruled that Pederson and Conley’s unreasonable entry into the Mendez’s shelter had provoked a “violent response” from Mendez and his BB gun.

Los Angeles County petitioned for a review of the case by the Supreme Court which subsequently heard arguments on March 22. Justice Sonia Sotomayor initially noted that the Mendezes had a Second Amendment right to bear arms, and so police should expect to be confronted by armed homeowners in the course of an illegal entry. Justice Elena Kagan made similar arguments.

Nevertheless, the court handed down a unanimous decision affirming the court’s hostility to the provocation doctrine as expressed in City and County of San Francisco v. Sheehan where the court upheld the concept of “qualified immunity” for officers who had provoked a violent confrontation with a mentally ill woman and shot her.

In the Mendez decision, Justice Samuel Alito called the provocation rule “a novel and unsupported path to liability in cases in which the use of force was reasonable.”

The court vacated the damages awarded by the court, sending the case back to the Ninth Circuit with instructions to reconsider whether the Mendezes can be awarded damages strictly on the merits of the warrantless entry; the court will not be allowed to consider the issues of police provocation or excessive force.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) has a history rife with abuse and brutality. In a state that jealously guards the opacity of police records, the LASD stands as one of the most protective of its officers.

Last June, in response to threats from the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs (ALADS), a union representing LASD deputies, the LASD removed from its public information database all information on investigations into police shootings, except for racial information.

The ALADS union tenaciously fights transparency or accountability; it currently is working to keep the Sheriff from releasing to prosecutors the names of deputies who have had disciplinary actions or who have been charged with crimes.

The crimes of the LASD and other police forces in Los Angeles County have abounded. Between 2000 and 2016, at least 1,300 people in the county were shot by police. A study published in the Guardian revealed that, per capita, Los Angeles County was the 11th deadliest county in the United States for police shootings in 2015. Very seldom were officers charged in these shootings.

The Supreme Court has legitimized this criminal violence with one reactionary ruling after another. It frequently invokes the reactionary “qualified immunity” doctrine that limits remedies for excessive force.

The right-wing judges did not stand up for the Second Amendment right to bear arms that is so frequently thrown out as a bone by right-wing politicians. The liberal judges, meanwhile, assented to the reactionary ruling, ultimately forsaking Fourth Amendment rights for the right of police to shoot and maim without any significant restrictions.

John Burton, president of the board of directors of the National Police Accountability Project and WSWS writer, noted the Mendez decision was part of a definite trend and “another stone removed from the edifice of Fourth Amendment rights.”

“The whole thing is political,” he told the WSWS. “The courts want to empower the police as much as possible and limit access to remedies for police violence.”

The important questions in the Mendez case, he pointed out, are not those of jurisprudence or democratic ideals enshrined in the Bill of Rights, but those of class tensions. Such decisions allow constitutional protections to be taken away “piece by piece, instead of all at once.”

An assault by an LAPD officer led to a criminal conviction — and now, a $500,000 settlement

An image from a 2014 surveillance video shows officers surrounding a man on the ground in South Los Angeles. (Los Angeles County Superior Court)

The Los Angeles City Council agreed Wednesday to pay up to $500,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a man assaulted by a police officer in South Los Angeles, an arrest caught on video that resulted in a rare criminal conviction — but no jail time — for the officer.

In a 12-0 vote, city lawmakers agreed to close the books on a federal civil rights case brought by Clinton Alford, who was kicked, punched and elbowed by an officer during a 2014 arrest.

The settlement marks the financial fallout of a case that echoed the larger national debate about how police use force: a black man, assaulted by an officer, recorded on video. The officer’s actions were criticized by many police officials, particularly after seeing the footage captured by a nearby security camera.

Prosecutors charged LAPD Officer Richard Garcia with assault under the color of authority, a felony that could have landed him behind bars for up to three years.

But Garcia was spared from jail last week under a controversial deal made with prosecutors. After completing community service, following all laws, staying away from Alford and donating $500 to a charity, Garcia was allowed to plead no contest to a misdemeanor charge that replaced the felony.

Garcia was sentenced to serve two years of probation. The punishment was less severe than that recommended by a probation officer, who suggested in a report filed in court that Garcia spend a year in jail and three years on probation.

Officers initially tried to stop Alford in October 2014 because police were investigating a robbery and he matched the description of the suspect, authorities said. After the assault, Alford was booked on suspicion of drug possession and resisting arrest — a case prosecutors later dismissed.

The 25-year-old is now facing life in prison after a jury convicted him a few weeks ago in a separate 2015 case. The charges in that case included rape, kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon, according to court records.

Garcia is still employed by the Los Angeles Police Department, but is on unpaid leave awaiting a disciplinary hearing. LAPD Chief Charlie Beck noted last week that the hearing could result in his firing.

The City Council also unanimously agreed Wednesday to pay up to $500,000 to settle another lawsuit from a man who said he was permanently injured in 2013 after he was shot by officers and bitten by a police dog in South L.A.

The Police Commission, the civilian panel that oversees the LAPD, agreed with Beck that police were justified in firing their guns at Sergio Pina. Officers told investigators they saw the 37-year-old man point a gun at one of the officers as they searched a neighborhood for him, according to a summary of the commission’s decision.

No gun was found at the scene, but the board said a “preponderance of the evidence” supported the officers’ account that Pina was armed. Both the commission’s report and another report from Beck noted that police went to the neighborhood because someone called 911 reporting a man walking around with a gun. Beck’s report said Pina matched the description of the man.

Pina contested the idea that he had a gun in two lawsuits he later filed, saying he was unarmed at the time of the shooting.

”We are pleased with the settlement because it was what the client wanted,” said Dale Galipo, an attorney who is representing Pina. “However, we felt we could prevail on the case had we gone to trial.”

The settlements were the latest in a string of police-related payouts that have captured the attention of City Hall, particularly as lawmakers took steps toward a controversial plan to borrow up to $60 million to help pay a skyrocketing legal tab.

Not all of the city’s costly settlements involved the LAPD. In August, for example, the council agreed to pay roughly $200 million to settle a lawsuit brought by disability rights groups over the lack of accessible publicly funded housing.

But LAPD-related lawsuits have taken a toll on the city’s coffers. During the last fiscal year, the city paid almost $81 million to settle such cases, a sharp increase from recent years, driven by high-dollar settlements for two wrongful murder convictions and a police shooting that left a boy paralyzed.

The city has paid over $32 million for LAPD-related legal cases during this fiscal year, which ends June 30, a spokesman for the city attorney’s office said Wednesday.

Councilman Mitch Englander, chairman of the Public Safety Committee, said in a statement that he was “very concerned with the current trend of rising payouts.”

Englander noted that many of the settlements stemmed from encounters that predated the Police Commission’s renewed efforts to minimize when officers use serious force — changes that have included revamped training, new protocols and more technology.

“I will be looking closely at the implementation of these reforms to observe any measurable effect they have in halting or reversing this trend,” he said.

EVERY WEEK THUG L.A. COPS AND SHERIFFS MURDER AT LEAST TWO PEOPLE

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department

(LASD) has a history rife with abuse and

brutality. In a state that jealously guards the

opacity of police records, the LASD stands as one

of the most protective of its officers.

“Gun!” Conley shouted; he and Pederson then

shot Mendez and his slumbering wife 15 times.

Angel Mendez was severely wounded and ended

up losing most of his right leg. Jennifer Mendez

was shot in the back and sustained a shattered

collarbone.

US Supreme Court sides with police who broke into home and shot sleeping couple

By Shelley Connor2 June 2017

The Supreme Court of the United States ruled unanimously on Tuesday in favor of the police in a case involving Constitutional issues relating to an illegal search and entry in violation of the Fourth Amendment which resulted in a man and his pregnant wife being shot 15 times.

The 8-0 decision in County of Los Angeles vs. Mendez overturns a Ninth Circuit Court decision that found in favor of Angel Mendez and vacated an award of $4 million granted by the Ninth Circuit.

Notably, the court reached its unanimous decision without the input of the conservative Trump appointee Neil Gorsuch, who did not vote since arguments in the case were heard before he was sworn in earlier this year.

On October 1, 2010, 12 Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputies, acting upon the word of an informant, made plans to sweep the home of Paula Hughes in the town of Lancaster in search of an at-large parolee. Deputies were told that a man and a “pregnant lady” were living in a plywood structure in Hughes’ backyard. The deputies did not notify Hughes of the sweep; they had not obtained a search warrant, nor had Hughes given them permission to search her property.

Conley and Jennifer Pederson, were assigned to clear the back of the property. Conley and Pederson made note of the plywood shack. A power cord ran from Hughes’ house to the 343 square foot structure. Clothes hung outside and the shack was equipped with an air conditioning unit—all things that signaled that the shed-like structure was inhabited.

Neither Pederson nor Conley knocked on the door of the shack, nor announced their presence. Conley opened the door and pulled aside a blanket which had been hung over the door for insulation.

Angel Mendez and his wife, Jennifer, who was seven months pregnant, lay asleep in the shack. Hughes had allowed them to live in the shed until they could recover from financial hardship. As deputies entered the structure, Angel woke and made to stand up, attempting to put down the BB gun he kept close to shoot at rats.

“Gun!” Conley shouted; he and Pederson then

shot Mendez and his slumbering wife 15 times.

Angel Mendez was severely wounded and ended

up losing most of his right leg. Jennifer Mendez

was shot in the back and sustained a shattered

collarbone.

The Mendezes sued Los Angeles County in federal court on the grounds that the deputies had violated their Fourth Amendment rights against illegal search and seizure and excessive force. The court ruled in their behalf, noting that the deputies were well aware that the shack was inhabited, having been informed of the fact in briefings and having seen evidence of habitation around the outside of the shed. Moreover, the deputies’ search did not merit any exception for a warrantless search, and they had further violated the Fourth Amendment by failing to alert the couple of their presence.

The court awarded the Mendezes $4 million in damages for the shooting, as well as attorneys’ fees and two penalties for unreasonable search and seizure. On appeal, the Ninth Circuit Court concurred with the lower court with the exception of the so-called “knock and announce” Fourth Amendment penalty.

Invoking the so-called “provocation doctrine,” the Ninth Circuit ruled that Pederson and Conley’s unreasonable entry into the Mendez’s shelter had provoked a “violent response” from Mendez and his BB gun.

Los Angeles County petitioned for a review of the case by the Supreme Court which subsequently heard arguments on March 22. Justice Sonia Sotomayor initially noted that the Mendezes had a Second Amendment right to bear arms, and so police should expect to be confronted by armed homeowners in the course of an illegal entry. Justice Elena Kagan made similar arguments.

Nevertheless, the court handed down a unanimous decision affirming the court’s hostility to the provocation doctrine as expressed in City and County of San Francisco v. Sheehan where the court upheld the concept of “qualified immunity” for officers who had provoked a violent confrontation with a mentally ill woman and shot her.

In the Mendez decision, Justice Samuel Alito called the provocation rule “a novel and unsupported path to liability in cases in which the use of force was reasonable.”

The court vacated the damages awarded by the court, sending the case back to the Ninth Circuit with instructions to reconsider whether the Mendezes can be awarded damages strictly on the merits of the warrantless entry; the court will not be allowed to consider the issues of police provocation or excessive force.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) has a history rife with abuse and brutality. In a state that jealously guards the opacity of police records, the LASD stands as one of the most protective of its officers.

Last June, in response to threats from the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs (ALADS), a union representing LASD deputies, the LASD removed from its public information database all information on investigations into police shootings, except for racial information.

The ALADS union tenaciously fights transparency or accountability; it currently is working to keep the Sheriff from releasing to prosecutors the names of deputies who have had disciplinary actions or who have been charged with crimes.

The crimes of the LASD and other police forces in Los Angeles County have abounded. Between 2000 and 2016, at least 1,300 people in the county were shot by police. A study published in the Guardian revealed that, per capita, Los Angeles County was the 11th deadliest county in the United States for police shootings in 2015. Very seldom were officers charged in these shootings.

The Supreme Court has legitimized this criminal violence with one reactionary ruling after another. It frequently invokes the reactionary “qualified immunity” doctrine that limits remedies for excessive force.

The right-wing judges did not stand up for the Second Amendment right to bear arms that is so frequently thrown out as a bone by right-wing politicians. The liberal judges, meanwhile, assented to the reactionary ruling, ultimately forsaking Fourth Amendment rights for the right of police to shoot and maim without any significant restrictions.

John Burton, president of the board of directors of the National Police Accountability Project and WSWS writer, noted the Mendez decision was part of a definite trend and “another stone removed from the edifice of Fourth Amendment rights.”

“The whole thing is political,” he told the WSWS. “The courts want to empower the police as much as possible and limit access to remedies for police violence.”

The important questions in the Mendez case, he pointed out, are not those of jurisprudence or democratic ideals enshrined in the Bill of Rights, but those of class tensions. Such decisions allow constitutional protections to be taken away “piece by piece, instead of all at once.”

An assault by an LAPD officer led to a criminal conviction — and now, a $500,000 settlement

An image from a 2014 surveillance video shows officers surrounding a man on the ground in South Los Angeles. (Los Angeles County Superior Court)

The Los Angeles City Council agreed Wednesday to pay up to $500,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a man assaulted by a police officer in South Los Angeles, an arrest caught on video that resulted in a rare criminal conviction — but no jail time — for the officer.

In a 12-0 vote, city lawmakers agreed to close the books on a federal civil rights case brought by Clinton Alford, who was kicked, punched and elbowed by an officer during a 2014 arrest.

The settlement marks the financial fallout of a case that echoed the larger national debate about how police use force: a black man, assaulted by an officer, recorded on video. The officer’s actions were criticized by many police officials, particularly after seeing the footage captured by a nearby security camera.

Prosecutors charged LAPD Officer Richard Garcia with assault under the color of authority, a felony that could have landed him behind bars for up to three years.

But Garcia was spared from jail last week under a controversial deal made with prosecutors. After completing community service, following all laws, staying away from Alford and donating $500 to a charity, Garcia was allowed to plead no contest to a misdemeanor charge that replaced the felony.

Garcia was sentenced to serve two years of probation. The punishment was less severe than that recommended by a probation officer, who suggested in a report filed in court that Garcia spend a year in jail and three years on probation.

Officers initially tried to stop Alford in October 2014 because police were investigating a robbery and he matched the description of the suspect, authorities said. After the assault, Alford was booked on suspicion of drug possession and resisting arrest — a case prosecutors later dismissed.

The 25-year-old is now facing life in prison after a jury convicted him a few weeks ago in a separate 2015 case. The charges in that case included rape, kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon, according to court records.

Garcia is still employed by the Los Angeles Police Department, but is on unpaid leave awaiting a disciplinary hearing. LAPD Chief Charlie Beck noted last week that the hearing could result in his firing.

The City Council also unanimously agreed Wednesday to pay up to $500,000 to settle another lawsuit from a man who said he was permanently injured in 2013 after he was shot by officers and bitten by a police dog in South L.A.

The Police Commission, the civilian panel that oversees the LAPD, agreed with Beck that police were justified in firing their guns at Sergio Pina. Officers told investigators they saw the 37-year-old man point a gun at one of the officers as they searched a neighborhood for him, according to a summary of the commission’s decision.

No gun was found at the scene, but the board said a “preponderance of the evidence” supported the officers’ account that Pina was armed. Both the commission’s report and another report from Beck noted that police went to the neighborhood because someone called 911 reporting a man walking around with a gun. Beck’s report said Pina matched the description of the man.

Pina contested the idea that he had a gun in two lawsuits he later filed, saying he was unarmed at the time of the shooting.

”We are pleased with the settlement because it was what the client wanted,” said Dale Galipo, an attorney who is representing Pina. “However, we felt we could prevail on the case had we gone to trial.”

The settlements were the latest in a string of police-related payouts that have captured the attention of City Hall, particularly as lawmakers took steps toward a controversial plan to borrow up to $60 million to help pay a skyrocketing legal tab.

Not all of the city’s costly settlements involved the LAPD. In August, for example, the council agreed to pay roughly $200 million to settle a lawsuit brought by disability rights groups over the lack of accessible publicly funded housing.

But LAPD-related lawsuits have taken a toll on the city’s coffers. During the last fiscal year, the city paid almost $81 million to settle such cases, a sharp increase from recent years, driven by high-dollar settlements for two wrongful murder convictions and a police shooting that left a boy paralyzed.

The city has paid over $32 million for LAPD-related legal cases during this fiscal year, which ends June 30, a spokesman for the city attorney’s office said Wednesday.

Councilman Mitch Englander, chairman of the Public Safety Committee, said in a statement that he was “very concerned with the current trend of rising payouts.”

Englander noted that many of the settlements stemmed from encounters that predated the Police Commission’s renewed efforts to minimize when officers use serious force — changes that have included revamped training, new protocols and more technology.

“I will be looking closely at the implementation of these reforms to observe any measurable effect they have in halting or reversing this trend,” he said.

Plenty of money for ILLEGALS……AMERICA’S OPEN BORDERS

HOMELESS ELDERLY in AMERICA UNDER MEX OCCUPATION

A Nation dies young, poor, addicted and homeless…. It’s the American dream as the rich get super rich!

Los Angeles County’s homeless population has soared 23% over last year despite increasing success in placing people in housing, according to the latest annual count released Wednesday.

The sharp rise, to nearly 58,000, suggested that the pathway into homelessness continues to outpace intensifying efforts that — through rent subsidies, new construction, outreach and support services — got more than 14,000 people permanently off the streets last year.

“Staggering,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn said in a statement. “It is clear that if we are going to end the homeless crisis, we need to stem the overwhelming tide of people falling into homelessness.”

Said Leslie Evans, a West Adams resident active in efforts to combat homelessness in South Los Angeles: “These are scary numbers.”

The startling jump in homelessness affected every significant demographic group, including youth, families, veterans and the chronically homeless, according to the report. Homeless officials and political leaders pointed to steadily rising housing costs and stagnant incomes as the underlying cause.

Homelessness also increased sharply in the city of Los Angeles, where the count of just over 34,000 was up 20% from 2016.

“There's no sugarcoating the bad news,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said at a news conference Wednesday where the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority released its report. “We can’t let rents double every year. I was particularly disappointed to see veteran numbers go up.”

Garcetti called homelessness a problem that has persisted “through administrations, through recessions,” adding, “Our city is in the midst of an extraordinary homelessness crisis that needs an extraordinary response. These men, these women, these children are our neighbors.”

The Homeless Services Authority linked the worsening problem to the economic stress on renters in the Los Angeles area. More than 2 million households in L.A. and Orange counties have housing costs that exceed 30% of income, according to data from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies included in the report.

According to the nonprofit California Housing Partnership Corp., median rent, adjusted for inflation, increased more than 30% from 2000 to 2015, while the median income was flat.

Currently, the median asking price for rentals countywide is $1,995 for one-bedroom apartments and $2,416 for all multifamily units, according to the real estate website Zillow.

“I am deeply concerned that over the next few years we will continue to be overwhelmed by people for whom rents are simply unsustainable,” Supervisor Sheila Kuehl said in a statement. She called for changes in land use and rent control regulations to boost affordable housing.

Mirroring last year’s count, only one of every four homeless people in both the city and across the county were classified as “sheltered,” meaning they were counted in an emergency shelter or longer-term transitional program. That left three of every four, or just under 43,000 countywide, living on the street.

The chronic homeless population — defined as those who have been on the streets at least a year or multiple times and suffering mental illness, addiction or physical disability — increased 20% to more than 17,000, despite increasing numbers placed into housing.

There were few exceptions to the bad news.

Even the homeless veteran population jumped in 2017, marking a backsliding of the gains made last year by city, state and federal programs that slashed the number of homeless veterans by a third. With the number of veterans placed into housing slightly down, the count of 4,828 homeless veterans was up 57%.

Mirroring last year’s count, only one of every four homeless people were classified as “sheltered,” meaning they were counted in an emergency shelter or longer-term transitional program. That left three of every four — just under 43,000 — living on the street.

The only hopeful sign of homeless initiatives making headway was the strong increase in the number of homeless families being sheltered. Though the population of homeless families increased nearly 30%, those without shelter dropped 21%.

The 2017 count, conducted in January, will become the baseline for a multibillion-dollar homeless program funded by two successful ballot measures.

Proposition HHH, approved by Los Angeles voters in November, will provide $1.2 billion in bond proceeds over a decade to build permanent housing. Measure H, approved by county voters in March, will provide an estimated $3.5 billion over 10 years for rent subsidies and services. The county Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote on budgets for the first three years on June 13.

The combined initiatives aim to create or subsidize 15,000 housing units and pay for services to support those living in them.

Voters “have afforded us opportunity we never had … to step forward and confront the problem of homelessness in Los Angeles,” said Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas. “I am not at all discouraged by this data. We knew intuitively there was an uptick. ... Now we have the resources to stand up to it.”

Ridley-Thomas called on the community to “put your war clothes on and get ready to fight.”

The Los Angeles count, the largest in the nation, is an estimate based on a street tally conducted by 7,700 volunteers over three days and nights. For the last dozen years, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has required cities, counties and other regions to conduct a count in order to receive federal homelessness aid.

The numbers give an imperfect snapshot of the highly fluid homeless population at a point in time. The number of people who lose their homes over the course of a year is more than three times greater on a given night, homeless officials say.

Because the homeless authority has refined its methodology over the years and expanded its volunteer base, year-over-year comparisons can be misleading.

Officials acknowledged, for example, that last year’s 11% increase at least partially resulted from the introduction of a special effort to locate hard-to-find youth.

But the scale of this year’s increase left little doubt that homelessness was on the rise.

Earlier this month, Orange County reported an 8% increase in its homeless population over two years. More than half of the county’s nearly 4,800 homeless people were living without shelter.

A 26% increase toppled years of stagnant or declining numbers in Santa Monica, bringing its homeless population to nearly 1,000, the highest number in a decade. City officials said more than half the homeless people came from other parts of the county.

A brighter picture emerged from Long Beach, which conducts its own count. The city recorded a 21% decline in its homeless population, crediting a nearly 200% increase in permanent housing there. But the actual decrease — 482 people — barely affected the regional totals.

In Los Angeles County, the most drastic increase — 48% — occurred in the San Gabriel Valley district of Supervisor Hilda Solis, where the count rose to just under 13,000.

Ridley-Thomas’ district remained the most affected with nearly 19,000 people counted, a 22% increase.

Surveys conducted with the Los Angeles count provided demographic breakdowns for the portion of the county excluding Long Beach, Pasadena and Glendale, cities that conduct their own counts.

These showed increases of 20% or more for every type of improvised shelter — cars (2,147), vans (1,862), campers and recreational vehicles (4,545), tents (2,343) and makeshift shelters (3,516).

Youths made up the fastest growing homeless age group with those 18 to 24 up 64%, followed by those under 18 at 41%.

Those numbers didn’t surprise Heidi Calmus, who works in the Hollywood branch of Covenant House, an international homeless services agency.

Calmus said the agency sees 100 to 150 new homeless youth in Hollywood every month. All the shelters have waiting lists, and permanent housing is impossible to find, even with a rent voucher.

“The system is overwhelmed,” Calmus said.

While blacks remained the largest racial/ethnic group, making up 40% of all homeless people, the number of Latinos grew by almost two-thirds. Whites declined by a modest 2% and Asians, though remaining only 1% of all homeless people, increased by nearly a third.

Three-fourths of homeless people reported they had been in the county for five years or more, while 12% had been residents for less than a year.

Youth homelessness surges in L.A. ‘Why are you out here?’ ‘My mom is a really bad mom'

Diandre Pope said his mother dropped him off at a Hollywood youth shelter when he was 15, and he started to get into trouble.

Now 31, the Watts native stays in an encampment on Hollywood Boulevard, around the corner from a popular fitness club, siphoning power off a utility pole to power his telephone and sampling the capacious offerings — taquitos to hot wings — from a nearby convenience store.

The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority reported Wednesday that 6,000 homeless young people like Pope were tallied across the county in January, a 61% increase over the 2016 total.

The homeless services agency improved the youth count, Executive Director Peter Lynn said, which could account for part of the jump. But Heidi Calmus of Covenant House California, an international youth homeless services agency with a branch in Hollywood, said the sharp increase was no surprise.

All the youth shelters have waiting lists and affordable housing is tough to find, even with a rent voucher, Calmus said.

“The system is overwhelmed,” Calmus said Tuesday night as she and a colleague, Nick Semensky, delivered toiletry bags and sandwiches to young people living in the streets.

Most of the young people are ages 18 to 24, Lynn said. Many were released from foster care or group homes, or like Pope, were set loose by their families.

They distrust authority and have no appetite for giving up the freedom of the streets for another regimented living situation, Semensky said.

“Emergency housing is instantly available on skid row, but they will have to be with older people and they may feel like they’re in the jail or prison they’ve already been in,” Semensky said. “And they say, ‘If I’m going to be homeless I might as well be homeless in L.A., it’s more exciting.’”

Like Pope, they are on the street longer than in the past, Calmus said. Some have had bad experiences in homeless settings and now are running out of options, she added.

Maggie Reyes, 24, said she spent almost a year at a youth shelter before another woman started stealing her belongings. She moved back with her mom, who has struggled to hold onto housing. She is hoping to get her own subsidized housing before the special services for young homeless people are cut off when she turns 25.

Michael Z., 24, said he was thrown out of his house after graduating high school because of his drinking and drug use. He said he no longer drinks and has finally found a good job.

He asked that his last name not be used because he has to conceal his homelessness from his employer. Agencies try to help him with housing, but landing a place appears to be a distant hope at best, he added.

“It takes so long to rehab from the streets,” he said.

Reyes said the homeless youth she sees in the street are getting younger and younger.

People stand in line for a meal at the Salvation Army shelter in Hollywood. (Christian K. Lee / Los Angeles Times)

High School Rapists Entered U.S. as Unaccompanied Alien Children, Lived in Sanctuary CountyJudicial Watch Corruption Chronicles, March 24, 2017Back in the summer of 2014, when the first batch of UACs began arriving, Judicial Watch reported that many were not harmless children fleeing violence as the media was largely reporting.Border Patrol sources on the ground divulged that a lot of the Central Americans were in their late teens and had ties to violent gang members and other criminal elements.Federal authorities handling the crisis offered a vastly different depiction than the government’s official version in the media.From the start, the barrage of illegal alien minors created an out-of-control disaster with jam-packed holding centers, rampant diseases and sexually active teenagers at a Nogales facility that housed the first arrivals, Homeland Security sources told Judicial Watch.A few weeks after the barrage of UACs slammed border officials, Homeland Security sources told Judicial Watch that the nation’s most violent street gangs—including Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13)—were actively recruiting new members at shelters housing illegal immigrant minors. In many cases they used Red Cross phones to communicate.The 18th Street gang also went on a recruiting frenzy at the various facilities housing the UACs, sources confirmed. The MS-13 is a feared street gang of mostly Central American illegal immigrants that’s spread throughout the U.S. and is renowned for drug distribution, murder, rape, robbery, home invasions, kidnappings, vandalism and other violent crimes.The Justice Department’s National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC) says criminal street gangs like the MS-13 are responsible for the majority of violent crimes in the U.S. and are the primary distributors of most illicit drugs.The 18th Street gang is considered the largest organized gang in Los Angeles County with about 15,000 members that operate a number of criminal enterprises throughout the region.

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said Monday that the LAPD will not change its stance on deporting illegal immigrants, despite President-elect Donald Trump’s position on the matter.

“I don’t intend on doing anything different,” he said to the Los Angeles Times. “We are not going to engage in law enforcement activities solely based on somebody’s immigration status. We are not going to work in conjunction with Homeland Security on deportation efforts. That is not our job, nor will I make it our job.”

The LAPD has been historically against deporting illegal immigrants.

During Beck’s tenure as police chief, the department has stopped turning over illegal immigrants arrested for low-level crimes to federal authorities for deportation and has not honored federal requests to detain inmates who might be deportable past their jail terms, the Los Angeles Times reported.

In 1979, police chief Daryl Gates signed an order that prohibits officers from initiating contact with someone for the sole purpose of determining whether that person is in the country legally.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested nearly 190 people across Southern California in a five-day operation covering six counties last week.

ICE officials boasted that 90 percent—169 of

the 188 people—of those arrested had prior

criminal convictions. Among the detained

immigrants, there were 15 people convicted of

“sex crimes,” including one man convicted of

rape, and a previously deported cocaine

trafficker. The latter two stories have been promoted by ICE officials and media outlets to push the narrative that the operation was conducted to remove “public safety threats.”

The field office director for Enforcement and Removal Operations for ICE in Los Angeles, David Marin, commented on the operation in an interview with the Daily Breeze: “It’s a win for us, and now we’ve taken these convicted criminals off the streets so they can’t re-offend, they can’t make more victims and, ultimately, our goal is to remove them from the country,” later adding, “they weren’t people who just had traffic tickets or speeding violations.”

In this case, of the 188 immigrants detained in last week’s sweep, the most common offense was for “drug offenses,” which included 43 people.

While a more detailed analysis of the criminal records is not provided by ICE documents, this category can include very minor offenses such as possession of small quantities of drugs like marijuana. The second most common offense, 30 of the cases, was driving under the influence (DUI). Three people were arrested for reentering the United States after being deported once already, and 19 were arrested despite having no criminal record whatsoever.

ICE raids have spiked significantly since the signing of Trump’s executive orders on immigration in January. Immigrant apprehensions have increased by nearly 40 percent compared to the same period last year. The same ICE forces responsible for last week’s raids in Southern California conducted a similar campaign in February that netted 161 arrests. Official statements by local Los Angeles ICE agents indicate that more such sweeps are still to come this year.

These raids have a particular significance in the Southern California region, which is home to the largest cluster of people living in the country without proper documentation. About 1.4 million undocumented immigrants live in the area between Los Angeles and the US-Mexico border.

“From the house, Maria "Chata" Leon, an illegal immigrant, her family and associates controlled drug and gang activity on the street for years, police said.”

The two-bedroom stucco house at 3304 Drew St. in Glassell Park was once the center of one of the most menacing drug marketplaces in Los Angeles.

From the house, Maria "Chata" Leon, an illegal immigrant, her family and associates controlled drug and gang activity on the street for years, police said.

During at least two raids at the house, according to court documents, officers found guns and drugs as well as surveillance cameras, laser trip wires and a shrine to Jesus Malverde, a Mexican folk hero whom drug traffickers have made their patron saint.

MICHELLE MALKIN: 15 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT LA RAZA "The Race".

No. 5.

"The Race" gives mainstream cover to a poisonous subset of ideological satellites, led by Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, or Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan (MEChA). The late GOP Rep. Charlie Norwood rightly characterized the organization as "a radical racist group …

one of the most anti-American groups in the country, which has permeated U.S. campuses since the 1960s, and continues its push to carve a racist nation out of the American West."

MEXICO’S CITY of SANTA ANA, in the ORANGE COUNTY, California should secede and join Mexico.

On Friday’s NPR’s “Latino USA” podcast, Garcetti said it is dangerous when “ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] calls themselves police,” adding that “it’s bad for ICE and it’s bad for LAPD” because “people open that door expecting to see LAPD.” He said “if something goes wrong” when ICE agents try to deport illegal immigrants, “I fear a tinderbox out there, where people will suddenly say no and try to defend… keep that person from being taken. That’s a very dangerous situation.”

“We just commemorated 25 years since the urban unrest and we know how quickly things can explode,” Garcetti said, referring to the 1992 L.A. riots.

Host Maria Hinojosa then asked whether “it has crossed your mind like, oh my God, the next tinderbox might not be black/white relations… but might end up being immigrant/police/ICE confrontations and then that can lead to an ugly, ugly chapter in L.A.’s life?”

Garcetti responded by asking listeners to imagine an ICE agent trying to deport a parent who is dropping off their child at school.

“Imagine that’s on the sidewalk and students start swarming and they’re teenagers,” he said. “It’s dangerous for those agents. It’s dangerous for our city because when you have 400 agents in this area of five or six counties of Southern California who are facing a two-million-person-estimated population that’s undocumented, even if you increase your ICE agents by 50 percent like the president wants to do… if you have 600 people trying to find two million people and somehow deport all of them… you can’t logistically do it and it makes us all less safe because you are not going after the truly dangerous people.”

Garcetti said, for instance, that if an illegal immigrant does not report that she got raped, “that rapist doesn’t ask for someone’s paper. They’re going to prey on our city, period.” He said police need to be trusted to the point where people are “willing to say I saw a crime being committed, I need to report that I am a survivor of domestic violence.”

Garcetti said he wishes Trump and Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and others in Trump’s administration would spend more time where immigrants actually live. He argued that “they have a caricature of who these people are” and added that the situation is “different on the ground” because most families and neighborhoods in predominantly immigrant communities are “blended.”

He also defended Los Angeles as a “sanctuary city,” saying he was more than proud of that designation.

“If sanctuary city means your police force will not be deputized or will take it upon themselves to enforce immigration law, then absolutely we are and proudly so,” he said.

Garcetti added that half of the country hears the term “sanctuary city” and the “caricature is these are places that invite dangerous criminals” and give them “bonus points” while asking them to “please live amongst us and we will protect you.”

“And that’s absolutely absurd,” he said, even though illegal immigrants with criminal pasts have murdered innocent Americans like Kate Steinle in “sanctuary cities” like San Francisco. Steinle’s murderer, who had been deported five times, said he chose to reside in San Francisco specifically because he knew it was a “sanctuary city.”

SEE VIDEO AT BOTTOM

HALF OF THE MURDERS IN LA RAZA-OCCUPIED CA ARE NOW BY MEXICAN GANGS.

REALITY:

"Although arrests by ICE are up 35% nationwide since Trump took office, they remain relatively flat in Southern California as of earlier this month. Arrests of immigrants without criminal pasts have remained low in the L.A. region as well, as agents are doing little, if anything, differently from what they were under the previous administration, ICE officials say."

Federal immigration agents arrested nearly 200 people in the Los Angeles area during a five-day dragnet targeting criminal offenders living in the country illegally, U.S. officials said Thursday.

Agents arrested 188 people in an operation targeting “at-large criminal aliens, illegal re-entrants and immigration fugitives,” according to a statement from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Nearly 90% — 169 — of those arrested in the operation, which ended Wednesday, had prior convictions, officials said. Those arrested included nationals from 11 countries. The majority, 146 people, are from Mexico. Others are nationals of El Salvador, Armenia, Honduras, Thailand, Yugoslavia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Russia and the Philippines, according to ICE.

Among them was a 29-year-old Salvadoran national who was deported in 2013 after serving a nine-year prison term for rape and who returned to the United States illegally, ICE said in a statement. Also detained were a previously deported 51-year-old from Mexico convicted of cocaine trafficking, a 47-year-old from Mexico with prior convictions for felony assault and another conviction for battery, and a 26-year-old Salvadoran national who is a registered sex offender, according to ICE.

Immigrants who are not being criminally prosecuted will be processed for removal from the country, ICE said.

“By taking these individuals off the streets and removing them from the country, we’re making our communities safer for everyone,” David Marin, field office director for enforcement and removal operations in Los Angeles, said in a statement.

Officials have said that ICE practices in Los Angeles have not changed, despite President Trump’s promised crackdown on those in the United States illegally.

Although arrests by ICE are up 35% nationwide since Trump took office, they remain relatively flat in Southern California as of earlier this month. Arrests of immigrants without criminal pasts have remained low in the L.A. region as well, as agents are doing little, if anything, differently from what they were under the previous administration, ICE officials say.

The 188 arrests made this week are in line with the number of people nabbed in similar operations ICE periodically carries out in the region. In February, for example, more than 150 people were arrested during a weeklong campaign, and ICE again ramped up arrests during a several-day stretch last July, which resulted in 112 arrests.

ICE refers to the increased activity as expanded enforcement operations to set them apart from typical arrest levels, which are somewhat lower. ICE’s Los Angeles field office, which covers a huge area from San Luis Obispo to San Clemente and from the coast to the Nevada border, has nine teams of agents who arrest people suspected of being in the country illegally. At least one of the teams is active each day and will typically target just a handful of people.

Other agents, meanwhile, focus on arresting people as they are released from local jails.

In the three months after Trump took office, agents in the L.A. field office made 2,273 arrests — marking little change from the 2,166 arrests during the same period last year and a decline from the 2,719 arrests in 2015, according to ICE figures. Ninety percent of the people arrested this year had criminal records, the highest percentage among all ICE offices in the United States, the numbers show.

The L.A. figures differ starkly from those in Atlanta, Dallas and elsewhere, where the number of people without criminal records arrested by ICE has jumped dramatically in the months since Trump took office. In Atlanta, for example, noncriminal arrests rose more than fivefold over last year and accounted for a third of all ICE arrests.

Immigrant charged in crash was

deported 5 times, family says victim’s

death ‘could have been prevented’

Los Angeles police say Estuardo Alvarado, the man who allegedly caused the collision, was speeding down Sepulveda Boulevard as he tried to flee the scene of another crash and slammed into a car being driven by Duran, who died at the scene.

“As one attorney general, Kamala Harris, steps down to replace Barbara Boxer, another attorney general is secreted out of the glands of selfsame power in the form of pus-spewing Xavier Becerra.”

It didn’t stop Becerra, a prominent Latino rights advocate who has served in Congress since 1993, from pushing for the dealer’s release at the request of his father, Horacio. The elder Vignali, a rich Los Angeles businessman, contributed thousands of dollars to Becerra’s various campaigns and a favor was in order.

LA RAZA MEX ETHNIC CLEANSING IN CALIFORNIA…. of legals.

SANCTUARY CITY SANTA ANA SURRENDERS TO LA RAZA FASCIST MOVEMENT

Another California City Waves the Mexican Flag

THE TRUMP AMNESTY… BUILT ON THE OBAMA AMNESTY and endorsed by NARCOMEX

Open the floodgates of our welfare state to the uneducated, impoverished, and unskilled masses of the world and in a generation or three America, as we know it, will be gone.

Those most impacted are middle class and lower middle class. It is they whose jobs are taken, whose raises are postponed, whose schools are filled with non-English speaking children that absorb precious resources for remedial English, whose public parks are trashed and whose emergency rooms serve as the local clinic for the illegal underground.

An assault by an LAPD officer led to a criminal conviction — and now, a $500,000 settlement

The Los Angeles City Council agreed Wednesday to pay up to $500,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a man assaulted by a police officer in South Los Angeles, an arrest caught on video that resulted in a rare criminal conviction — but no jail time — for the officer.

In a 12-0 vote, city lawmakers agreed to close the books on a federal civil rights case brought by Clinton Alford, who was kicked, punched and elbowed by an officer during a 2014 arrest.

The settlement marks the financial fallout of a case that echoed the larger national debate about how police use force: a black man, assaulted by an officer, recorded on video. The officer’s actions were criticized by many police officials, particularly after seeing the footage captured by a nearby security camera.

Prosecutors charged LAPD Officer Richard Garcia with assault under the color of authority, a felony that could have landed him behind bars for up to three years.

But Garcia was spared from jail last week under a controversial deal made with prosecutors. After completing community service, following all laws, staying away from Alford and donating $500 to a charity, Garcia was allowed to plead no contest to a misdemeanor charge that replaced the felony.

Garcia was sentenced to serve two years of probation. The punishment was less severe than that recommended by a probation officer, who suggested in a report filed in court that Garcia spend a year in jail and three years on probation.

Officers initially tried to stop Alford in October 2014 because police were investigating a robbery and he matched the description of the suspect, authorities said. After the assault, Alford was booked on suspicion of drug possession and resisting arrest — a case prosecutors later dismissed.

The 25-year-old is now facing life in prison after a jury convicted him a few weeks ago in a separate 2015 case. The charges in that case included rape, kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon, according to court records.

This surpasses the 122,000 level of amnesty cards issued during the final quarter of Obama's presidency (Oct. 1-Dec. 31, 2016), which means the Trump administration is not even slowing down the pace! And although the first 20 days of this quarter were still under Obama's tenure, the Trump amnesty is likely close to 200,000 by now, when extrapolating in the number of presumed cards issued during April and May.

Thus, while Trump's own lawful immigration order lies in ruins from tyrannical courts – with no effort to fight back through Congress – Obama's patently unconstitutional DACA order remains in full force even after his presidency.

The jarring thing here is that Trump could fulfill a core campaign promise simply by refusing to renew existing DACA cards. We are not talking about a balanced budget or entitlement reform – just a simple display of inaction. Even Marco Rubio said the president should only decline to retroactively strip DACA, but should follow through with the promise not to renew the amnesty.

This is correct. Trump does not need congressional approval to discontinue the DREAMer program. But instead of stopping it, he has expanded it.

The apprehension of illegal border crossers by Border Patrol agents jumped 31 percent in May from the previous month. The jump follows a six-month decline in apprehensions after the election of President Donald Trump. The increase comes as Border Patrol agents report "catch and release" programs are quietly continuing.

"Obama's catch and release is definitely continuing and our government is releasing illegal aliens into U.S. communities," Border Patrol agent Brandon Judd told Breitbart Texas in his capacity as president of the National Border Patrol Council.

Agents previously expressed feeling betrayed by the new president's administration after Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly appointed Kevin McAleenan as head of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the parent agency of the U.S. Border Patrol.

"He nominated this guy .. the problem is that this guy was hired by Barack Obama and was made deputy of [CBP] and all of the things we fought against on the border happened under this guy's watch and he would have been the one responsible for implementing them. That's DACA, DAPA and Catch and Release." Darby said in a Pursuit of Happinessinterview referring to some programs started under the Obama Administration.

"This is the guy who was picked by Barack Obama to enact Barack Obama's open border policies," Darby explained. "This guy for some reason has been picked by Trump to be the boss of the border patrol agents who did so much and believed so much in Donald Trump."

So Trump has a picked an Obama appointee to carry out Obama-era policies.

A total of 3,957 refugees were admitted into the United States in May, a 19.3 percent increase over April's figures ... with the largest contingents coming from the DRC (2,683), Burma (2,216), Iraq (1,696), Somalia(1,655) and Syria (1,603).

No court ruling requires him to admit individual refugees from these countries. Only low-information voters think otherwise.

4) Trump has agreed to zero funding of his "border wall" in the first year of his presidency. In the second year of his presidency, he has requested only $1.6 billion, which is not enough to fund a substantial portion of it.

5) Trump has refused to defund sanctuary cities. He has proposed ending grants to sanctuary cities from one small Justice Department grant program, keeping 99% of all grants to sanctuary cities intact. That's not keeping a campaign promises; that's tokenism.

I think, rhetoric aside, that Trump's immigration and border security policies are very much like Barack Obama's, and if Hillary Clinton had been elected president, we would have seen the exact same thing – more DREAMers, more Muslim refugees, and no border wall.

On this issue, President Trump is Hillary Clinton with a jacket and a tie.